Mothers of the Animal Kingdom

We celebrate a mother's love with a look through the most adorable bond between a mother and her child in the animal world.

16-year-old Polar Bear, Liya and her two Polar Bear cubs at the marine mammal park on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

“But it’s also hard work, and consuming.”

"And I think it’s okay to acknowledge that it’s wonderful to be a parent but also okay to find it frustrating, confusing and exhausting.”

In a new post on reddit, parents spoke openly about not experiencing that initial rush of love.

And how long it really took for them to love their baby.

“Three days”

Lindsay, 33, says: “I didn’t feel a rush of warm for her [daughter]. When they got us all settled in my hospital room, I held her close and looked her over. It was certainly a novelty, and I was over the moon that she was finally here and I was actually a mother. But I wasn’t “in love” with her.

"I felt awful for feeling nothing. The third day, she was still very jaundiced and had a heart murmur, so they wanted to take her to the NICU for a few days. They gathered her up in her little push cart and that’s when it hit me: They were taking my child from me! I began crying my eyes out and my mom wrapped me in a hug and rocked me as I cried and cried."

"That’s the moment that I began loving my daughter. She was no longer a stranger. She was my flesh and blood. She was mine."

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Not every mother felt that instant love

“Two weeks”

Tiffany, 34, says of her daughter: “When she was finally born, I cried in relief more than anything. Then I got all patched up and they gave her to me and I looked at her little face and felt … nothing.”

“At the time, I didn’t tell anyone—it was far too shameful."

"One day, about two weeks after she was born, I was sitting and nursing her and it hit me. I can still see that moment clearly. All those feelings I’d been wanted flooded in at once. I started crying and I hugged her to my breast."

Kerri, 31, explains: “I loved my daughter because she was mine, but I didn’t really feel that overwhelming love that people talk about. She was just like, there. She slept 20 hours a day. The times she was awake, she was pooping or crying, or both.”

“When people asked me how I was doing, my answer was always some variation of, “I’m great! And I love her so much!” I didn’t feel resentment towards her—I just didn’t feel that bottomless pit of gushy love everyone talked about. I felt guilty about about that, especially since I had wanted her for so many years.”

“I don’t think I truly felt a bond with my daughter until she was close to a year old. I can’t name a particular moment when I started to love her. It was kind of gradual, more like falling in love than love at first sight.”